On the Mend
by liela det
Summary: You never know who might end up being your ally


**A/N: **Written for ci_fans_unite challenge on LJ. Prompt: Ross comes to visit sick Eames at her house to find Goren there, washing dishes. Bare foot. Eames' asleep, Ross/Goren talk.

**A/N2:** Thank you to goddesdster for tolerating the BAness of it all and for the great advice and beta.

**Disclaimer: **Don't own.

Ross wasn't so much surprised as annoyed when Goren answered Eames' front door that Friday night. He had always been suspicious of the duo, but quite frankly he didn't want to know. He couldn't know. But then why had he even come there?

A part of him wanted to catch them in the act. He wanted to know if he was just reading too much into the looks, the tension, the seamless understanding, and the lengths they took going to bat for the other (well, really the lengths that Eames went more times over than he could count).

Inside, just minutes before, Goren had been washing a soup bowl when he heard the knock. He popped his head into the living room to check on a sleeping, bundled up Eames, and then moved to the door.

It wasn't the scowl of his captain's face he was expecting to find, but that of Eames' sister bringing a batch of their grandmother's chicken soup. He silently tried to figure out the best way to explain, but knew the sweats, bare feet, and dish towel he sported would only negate anything he might come up with.

"Captain? What are you doing here?"

"I think I should be asking you that," Ross said.

This was what he and Eames had been avoiding for years. It was what he found his mind wandering to some nights as he watched her sleep, knowing it would probably hurt her more than him, because she was the woman. Because it was hard enough for people to understand why she had stayed his partner for this long, let alone be able to fathom the idea of her loving him.

"Eames, she needed someone to pick some things up for her," Goren said.

"And she called you?"

"It's not that hard to believe," he said. "She's my partner."

"Right…"

"Well, do you have a better explanation for why _you're_ here?"

Goren watched him glance over the small yard and the hedge that lined one side of the house as if they might help him come up with a suitable response.

"Eames…she's never called in sick…I wanted to make sure she was all right."

"Really? So you drove all the way out to Rockaway instead of just calling?" Goren asked. "You know, if you're not careful people might get the wrong idea…"

"I'm not the one who looks like they're planning on settling in for the night."

Goren couldn't exactly argue with that, so he shuffled back a step and gave a short nod.

"Well…I'm not the one with a girlfriend," Goren said. "What would Rodgers think of you coming to another woman's house on a Friday night?"

Ross huffed, shaking his head.

"I'm going home. I hope Eames feels better," he said curtly and began to turn on his heel.

Goren stepped further onto the stoop, closing the door behind him.

"Something happened…between you and Rodgers."

"Good night, Detective."

"So what, did you think you could come here for a rebound?"

Ross turned on his heel.

"You really think I'm going to dignify that?"

"No. But it got you to turn around."

Ross sighed, placing his hands on his hips, and stared up at the sky.

"Okay," Ross said, decisively. "Elizabeth and I…had a fight."

"So, why did you come to see Eames?" Goren asked.

Goren sat down on the top step. He watched as Ross rolled his eyes and then reluctantly join him on the step.

"I wanted to talk to her…if she wasn't too out of it."

"Talk? About Rodgers?"

"No, the quantum physics surrounding string theory. Of course, about Rodgers," Ross said and then huffed. "She gave me some good advice over drinks once, okay?"

"Wait. You had drinks with Eames?" Goren asked and then watched Ross nod. "When? During my suspension?"

Ross shook his head.

"After we got you out of Tates. I was supposed to take Rodgers to the opera that night…she wasn't exactly thrilled about me bailing," Ross said. "Eames and I grabbed a drink once we got you settled in the hospital…she had some good ideas about how to make it up to Elizabeth."

"She never told me about that," Goren said and remembered waking up in the hospital to find Eames slumped in a chair beside his bed.

"Well it probably wasn't on the top of her list at the time," Ross said.

Goren nodded and glanced down at the ground.

"So, what happened?" Goren asked.

"We just talked. I'm not trying to move in on Eames."

"No…with you and Rodgers? Elizabeth."

"She…she met my boys last weekend. It…didn't go well," Ross said. "She says she's not sure she can handle it – the ex-wife, the baggage, the teenagers. I guess she was looking for something simpler…"

Goren snorted.

"I guess Eames would have good advice for you."

Ross smirked.

"Yeah," he said and then shifted in his seat. "I want to know one thing and then I'm going to go and try to forget all of this. How long?"

"How long what?"

"I think we're well past playing dumb."

Goren sighed.

"Almost four years."

"That long?"

"The last couple of years we've had some…off times, but more or less."

"Do you love her?"

"I thought you just wanted to know one thing."

"Humor me."

Goren stared down at his hands and nodded.

"Yes."

Ross nodded and then pushed up from the step.

"Have a good night, Goren," Ross said.

Goren shot up from the step and called, "Captain?"

Ross held up a hand.

"Like I said I'm going to go forget any of this happened. Do the same."

Goren nodded and watched Ross walk back to his car. He turned to go back inside and locked the door behind him. He went into the living room and found Eames still cocooned in her blanket as she slept on the sofa.

He knelt in front of her and brushed his fingers against her warm forehead. She shifted, groaning, and then mumbled something about how her knees were aching. His fingers moved up further and into her hair, until the pads of his finger tips found the skin of her scalp.

"You should go…I'm going to get you sick," she said.

"Don't worry about that."

She made a noise that was somewhere between a hum and huff and then leaned further into his touch.

"Just keep doing that and you can do whatever you want," she said.

"Sit up a minute."

She did and he sat down, placing the pillow she was using in his lap. She laid down and his fingers went back into her hair, drawing small circles on her scalp. He fished out the TV remote from between the couch cushions and then rested his right arm in the dip of her waist as he absently flipped through the channels.

He glanced down at her.

"I love you."

"Geez, Bobby, I'm not that sick."

He laughed.

"Yeah, I know. But, I just want you to know."

"I do," she said and then a few minutes later, "Was someone at the door earlier?"

"Oh, that…it…it was nothing."

"Oh…okay," she mumbled.

She quickly drifted back to sleep and he settled on a documentary about sex in the Middle Ages, not feeling nearly as worried as he should about facing Ross on Monday morning.

Across town, Ross rode the elevator up to Rodgers' fifth floor apartment with no idea as to what he was going to say to her. His knock on her door was hesitant, not confident like the one he had placed on Eames'. A minute passed with no answer and he was ready to give up, but then heard the locks discharge. Rodgers appeared in front of him, leaning on the door frame with one fist propped up on her hip.

"Elizabeth," he said with a nod.

"Danny."

He shifted and sighed. She wasn't going to make this easy. She never did.

"I'm…sorry. I shouldn't have walked out the way I did," he said.

She nodded and glanced down at her bare feet.

"Maybe…maybe I was being a little…rash."

"Can I come in?"

She nodded and stepped away from the door towards the living room. He followed. It didn't take long for him to forget about the night's earlier events.


End file.
